Tag Archives: ie

Only a small handful of legislative races could be considered even theoretically competitive in the general election, and Gov. Doug Ducey plans to use his independent expenditure committee to ensure that those seats are in Republican hands when the 2017 session starts.

Despite Election Director Eric Spencer’s comments to the contrary earlier this month, Reagan will continue enforcing a law requiring IEs to notify targets of attack ads within 24 hours. Secretary of state spokesman Matt Roberts said Reagan shares Spencer’s belief that the law is unconstitutional, but will not cease enforcement.

Candidates aren’t the only ones amassing money — an independent expenditure committee that Gov. Jan Brewer established last year to defend her legislative allies has raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

Political consultant Chuck Coughlin said last week that he expects the Brewer-backed Arizona’s Legacy independent expenditure committee to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to back candidates in next year’s election, and the invitation for the IE’s fundraiser tomorrow shows it is well on track to do so.

Regardless of whether Horne and Kathleen Winn committed a crime, some political observers say Winn’s switch from Horne’s campaign to the IE she formed earlier in 2010 created a perception of coordination, even if there was none. One attorney said Winn’s knowledge from her time on the primary campaign that would have been useful to her pro-Horne IE, Business Leaders for Arizona.

Federal authorities are investigating Attorney General Tom Horne over allegations that he illegally collaborated with an independent expenditure committee that spent more than a half-million dollars on negative ads against his Democratic opponent in 2010, the Arizona Capitol Times has learned.

A complaint filed in February by a prosecutor in Horne’s own office - and a onetime political ally of Horne - alleges that the attorney general collaborated with an independent expenditure called Business Leaders for Arizona, which received $115,000 from Horne’s brother-in-law in California.

The complaint, filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, also alleges that Horne rewarded the chairwoman of the campaign group with a high-paying job at the Attorney General’s Office.